Arsenal Fans Sue Arsenal over anti-Spurs, anti-Yid Chants

“Yid Army! Yid Army! Yid Army!” It’s become a war cry for Tottenham fans over time, rather oddly: Spurs have had a traditionally significant support in North London’s Jewish community, but it has become an identity embraced by fans regardless of their actual Jewish heritage. And like at Ajax, the chants have only mushroomed in response to opposition taunts against Jews. There has, at times, been some very unpleasant hissing at Spurs supporters as a consequence.

A strange twist in this tale emerged today: three Arsenal fans are sueing their own club over racist chanting at the Emirates Stadium involving the words “Yids” or “Yiddos”, used against Tottenham fans.

In a letter sent to the Arsenal chairman, the fans – a Jew, a Muslim and a Christian – claim that the use of the anti-Semitic words “Yids” or “Yiddos” in reference to players and fans from Tottenham Hotspur amounts to a breach of Race Relations Act.

Their solicitor, Lawrence Davies, a leading human rights lawyer at the London law firm Equal Justice, has asked the club to take immediate action to stamp out all racist chanting at the club.

Mr Davies’s letter, sent this week to Peter Hill-Wood, makes it clear that the season-ticket holders can sue the club for breach of contract as Arsenal has a written policy of taking firm action against racist behaviour in the stadium.

Arsenal fans argue that the use of the words “Yids” and “Yiddos” in reference to their north London rivals is not racist but simply directed at the club’s Jewish history and point out that Tottenham fans even refer to themselves as the “Yid Army”. But Mr Davies says this does not stop the language from being offensive and anti-Semitic.

Mr Davies says in his letter: “The test in law is whether the language concerned causes offence to the person concerned. Our five clients are all Arsenal supporters and three are season-ticket holders. The season-ticket holders include a Jewish member and a Muslim member. They have all felt offended.”

He claims that by taking no action, the club would appear to be in breach of the Race Relations Act 1976 in the provision of a service or permitting harassment to occur without challenge.

His letter adds: “The season-ticket holders have a contractual relationship with the club. The contract states that fans exhibiting racist behaviour will have their contracts terminated and will be ejected form a particular match. None of the ‘Yid’ chanters have been challenged.”

Other Arsenal fans are bemused by this — at the popular Arseblog, there’s the view this is a spurious legal action.

I think everyone would agree that any kind of racist chanting needs to be cut out but this seems just bizarre to me. From what I can see Arsenal have been tremendously pro-active when it comes to this sort of thing, certainly more than other clubs who let their fans sing all kinds of songs. And to bring ‘human rights’ into the equation smacks of attention seeking to me. Let me clarify, any kind of racist chanting is absolutely wrong, but I’m not quite sure what this legal action against the club, not the fans who they can surely identify, will do.

Surely, though, the legal action is pointing out that the club are failing to challenge fans engaged in what the letter to Hill-Wood calls ‘Yid’ chants. Supporter-led initiatives against racism in British football have been a huge boon to the game in the past two decades: whilst there will always be racist individuals, collective racist chanting has been largely (if not completely) eradicated, and individuals trying to engage in it should be ejected.

The question, instead, seems to hinge on whether or not chants involving the word “Yid” are racist in this context. The curious situation is that the majority of the people (but, not all) being targeted by the chants — the Spurs fans — are patently not actually Jewish, and they themselves have a certain culpability in this whole affair due to their vociferous “Yid Army” chants in the first place. That doesn’t make any anti-Semitic response right, of course, but it’s all so unnecessary anyway.

My own view, as a fan of Tottenham and someone with significant Jewish heritage from London, is that all of the chanting about “Yids” — from whichever side of the barricades — is quite spurious in itself and doesn’t belong at the football. It only leads to what is at best unpleasantness; as an example, look at the comments left at Arseblogger about this today.

In Britain, this action will also be seen in the context of the ongoing debate over political correctness, and there will be many like Arseblogger who see this as making a mountain out of a molehill. What do you think? Is this malignant anti-Semitism, or just benign rivalry?

As a Chelsea fan I have been witness to and indeed taken part in songs or chants which have included the words ‘yids’ or ‘yiddo’s’ but I personally have no hatred for Jews and I believe that this is the case with the vast majority of Chelsea supporters.
I have heard these chants as I have grown up at games and in pubs before hand but have only ever related the term ‘yid’ with a Tottenham fan, never to the Jewish faith.
I believe it is now commonly seen as a ‘nickname’ which is associated with Spurs and the fact that they have taken this term on as their own confounds this.
I may be totally out of order but this is my view, I’d be interested in finding out what others thought though.

November 10, 2007 at 8:42 pmAntonio G

OBK – Replace the word “yid” with “nigger” and “Jewish faith” with “black” and see how your argument sounds.

Anti-semitism is racism but because Jews a) aren’t a particularly visible minority and b) aren’t really seen as a marginalized group within society, this kind of chanting is seen as a little more benign than – say – monkey grunting.

But good on these fans. Someone needs to spur (no pun intended) Premiership clubs to get serious about this issue.

(This isn’t just a football issue in England, either. I heard some of the most appalling anti-semitic drivel come out of the mouth of a very senior member of HM’s civil service at a conference last May. I understand that he was trying to suck up to the Saudis who were hosting the event, but there was absolutely no need for it.)

November 12, 2007 at 7:17 amThe Revolution

Antonio G – you seem to be mixing race with religion as do the lawyers perusing this case. There is a clear difference between a race and a religion and in this case there is no “Jewish race” and therefore it could not be covered by The Race Relations Act (1976).

As this article says; the question, instead, seems to hinge on whether or not chants involving the word “Yid” are racist in this context. No they are not racist. They may be viewed offensive to those of the Jewish faith but the same could be said most football chants that are there to cause offence to certain groups of supporters.

A few years ago, I was involved in a case which was exactly the same as this.

Two Arsenal fans had been arrested at White Hart Lane for using racist abuse when they had simply been singing the old ‘We hate Yids’ song and I was asked to provide expert testimony to prove the association the word ‘Yid’ has with Spurs fans.

It was pretty straightforward and the case was dropped as soon as the prosecution lawyers were handed my report and so I really am amazed that this has come up again.

November 12, 2007 at 11:29 amAntonio G

This may be an issue of different legal traditions. Here in Canada we wouldn’t make the distinction between abusive language on religious grounds and abusive language on racial grounds.

Personally, that distinction seems like hair-splitting to me. I mean, you could argue that “Paki” isn’t racist either, because there is no racial distinction between South Asian Muslims and Hindus , so “really” it’s just a religious term. Which is OK, apparently.

How does that work in Northern Ireland, then? Is it OK to use religiously-tinged invective in public places there? Or are there laws against it. And if there are laws, why wouldn’t they apply in this case?

November 14, 2007 at 6:20 amGenesis

Its neither malignant anti-semitism nor benign rivalry. Its ignorant racism. And its on both sides. The Tottenham season ticket holders who chant this should also be treated in the same way by their club, and ejected from games.

Ignorance is not and should never be considered an acceptable excuse for racism. It is little different to the use of the obvious “n” word.